Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Carl Linnaeus

  • Carl Linnaeus as dietitian and pediatrician

    Göran WettrellLund, Sweden Carl Linnaeus as pediatrician Carl Linnaeus is best known as a botanist through his classification of the sexual system of plants and taxonomy. His interest in botany was noticed from a young age at Växjö Gymnasium by his teacher, provincial physician Johan Rothman, who instructed the young student in botany and medicine.…

  • Carl Linnaeus—The young botanist, natural scientist, and physician

    Göran WettrellLund, Sweden Carolus Linnaeus, ennobled Carl von Linné in 1761, is one of the great sons of Sweden. At an early age, he demonstrated an interest in nature and plants. His lifelong passion was the ordering and classification of plants, animals, minerals, and diseases. Young Linnaeus Linnaeus was born in a small village in…

  • On orchids and testes

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “You like orchids?…Nasty things. Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, their perfume the rotten sweetness of corruption.”– John Steinbeck Orchids belong to a widespread group of flowering plants. There are about 28,000 species of orchids worldwide.1 The underground tubers of many European orchids—which contain the plant’s reserve food…

  • From woodpeckers to Auenbrugger

    James Franklin Chicago, Illinois, United States In learning the art of physical diagnosis, every medical student is taught the technique and application of percussion. Percussion involves placing the palm and fingers of one hand on the patient and using the tip of the third finger of the other hand as a hammer, striking the distal interphalangeal…

  • Carl Linnaeus – Botanist and physician

    Einar PermanStockholm, Sweden Carl Linnaeus, the famous botanist and father of modern plant nomenclature, was also a physician. Born in 1707 in a rural village in Southern Sweden, he had developed at an early age an interest in flowers and plants. His father was a priest and would have liked his son to also join…